Working with Captured

We are always interested in working with large regional businesses who can to commit the time of their managers to the programme.  The time commitment is small, approximately two days split over 2 months, and the reward is great. Volunteer managers are provided with a briefing to prepare them for the programme before being matched with a small business owner who they will work with for the duration of the programme. Many of our volunteer managers return year after year as they find taking part in the programme incredibly rewarding. 

Workshop1

‌Captured programme participants and managers from large organisations working together.

 

How it works
We match owners of small firms (employing fewer than 20 people) with a manager from a large regional business to work as an ‘extended management team’. The aim is to help the small business owner identify challenges in their business and how they might solve them.

This happens through a series of facilitated activities during two half-day workshops which are two to three weeks apart. In between and after the workshops we ask that managers keep in touch with their assigned small business owner in an advisory and supportive capacity, but we are flexible as to how that takes place. It could be by short meetings, or even just by an email or telephone call – it may well depend on the small business owner’s needs.

 

Benefits
For your organisation, Captured offers many benefits, from developing your managers’ skills, to enhancing your profile as an organisation that makes a positive difference to the region, and providing a better understanding of the regional small business community – who may be part of your customer base or supply chain.

  • Time to step out of their daily role and discipline and help small local businesses.
  • Opportunity to hone their mentoring skills and apply their knowledge and experience in a completely new context.
  • Opportunity to reflect on and develop their own managerial practice in a new context.
  • Chance to gain an understanding of how small, entrepreneurial businesses think and operate, thereby returning to their workplace with new ideas, contacts and skills.

 

Criteria

  • Managers can be from any department within the organisation.
  • Managers should be middle managers identified as on track for more senior positions over time or existing senior managers.
  • They should have an openness to learn/reflect and be open to new experiences
  • They should have the ability to listen, to question and an awareness of what is going on in the business world outside their own business.
  • They should be willing to commit at least the equivalent of two full days to the small business they work with.

 

 

How to get involved

Contact Fiona Whitehurst, Captured Project Lead
Email: Fiona.Whitehurst@ncl.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)191 2081603

or Jo Singh, Captured Project Co-ordinator
Email: Jo.Singh@newcastle.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)191 208 2031